eikond's WRB premium BRZ - Review and Journal

[eikond]

My turn to start a journal thread.

I picked up my car last night. LOVE IT!!! I can't imagine a better new car for $25k..(paid invoice for it )

So.. what do I think about the BRZ:
I won't try to use dazzling terms and talk about lots of technology.. I'm not expert enough to use those terms properly. I'll leave that to Ryephile, Dave-ROR, Moto-P and others who are more experienced and qualified. But I'll give my honest opinion and layman's terms..

This car was born to turn. I've got an idea in my mind to take a photo and add a caption to best explain what the car is like: I'm going to find a yellow road sign warning of curves ahead with a 15mph or 25mph speed warning.. then take a picture of the back end of the BRZ under the sign and add the caption.. "More Please!". I've never driven a car that is so willing to turn.


Subaru/Toyota did a fantastic job putting together an affordable sports car platform. They clearly had monetary constraints as they weren't building another STI or LFA or other supercar.. So you don't get the fire-breathing motor or the supercar technology. But, most of us can't afford that anyway.. So for the price, they presented the best car they could, and they gave us a fantastic value. They clearly put a lot of time and energy into perfecting a platform that will be an instant classic.



The car just lives to turn. For the duration of my hour long maiden voyage I found myself scanning ahead in hopes of seeing those wonderul "curvy road ahead" signs. Each time I saw one, my heart lept with joy. When you come up to a corner in a BRZ, you don't process the normal thoughts of "how much do I need to slow down before I enter the turn and how much speed will scrub off just from the process of making a turn?" In the BRZ, the tighter the turn the better.. Each one is a joy. You visualize the nose of the car turning in, turn the wheel and it instantly obeys your commands. It doesn't nose-dive, load the suspension, scrub the sidewalls and make you just hold on until you get through the turn.. Instead, it just dives in.. level, confident, balanced, and HAPPY to do it. It doesn't scrub off speed or threaten to oversteer.. it just turns. It's a go-kart!



This is certainly a change of pace from the prototypical sports car.. We're used to a product design that starts with engine power and adapts the rest of the car to work around that feature as well as it can. Some manufacturers are better at this than others of course.. With the BRZ, it seems like the engine was picked more for it's physical characteristics than it's power output. This has some benefits and some drawbacks of course. In case you didn't know already.. this car was born to turn. The lightweight, low to the ground boxer motor helps immensely in this goal. So if you find your joy in turning the wheel and carving through corners, this motor certainly helps put a smile on your face. If you find joy in that "push your head back" forward acceleration, you will be dissapointed with this motor. It's just not fast. Through very narrow gearing, it manages to feal peppy and just powerful enough to get you to the next set of corners, but it's not going to give you much fun in those straights. I'm a little dissapointed by the motor.. I have to admit. Though, I will also admit that I have been "breaking it in" easily. I'm still keeping it under 4k RPMS, so I know I haven't unlocked the "loves to rev" feature that others have bragged about. Still, I can tell by the feel of the 1k to 4k RPM range that this will not be a fast car in a straight line. At least not yet..



If you like to row gears, this car is for you! I believe Toyota had most of the influence on the clutch and transmission so I'll give them high praise and a little bit of a hard time. I've driven a lot of manual transmission cars in the past and I've needed to do "short-shifter" modifications in some prior cars I've owned in order to clean up the throws. This car needs no short shifter kit.. any shorter and you would be using the trackball on a laptop computer to select gears. In stock form the throw from gear to gear seems little more than moving a mouse from the top of your screen to the bottom. It's fantastic! The gates are clear and defined with little concern for missing a gear. The motions are fluid from 2-3 and 4-5 and vice versa so you don't feel like you are hunting to find the right gate. I'm still getting used to the position and throws and I'm sure this will only continue to get better. The clutch is great.. very light. I can see adding power in the future and adding a heavier clutch to harness it.. but for the 150ft lbs in oem form.. the clutch feel is great. Engagement is a little high on the pedal, but then you get to it quicker, so that's a time saving feature as well and should lend to better performance driving.



Despite all the positives on the trans/clutch/shifter.. I do have a compaint. Again this is my personal feeling, and may not be a very valid "technical" or "expert" opinion. I think the gearing is much too short. I understand that short gearing can compensate for a less powerful engine.. I get that.. It's true that the engine is weak, and longer gearing would make that feel a little worse.. But I'd prefer it that way.. I've already resigned myself to the idea that this car is no mustang in the straights. For normal driving, you just have to shift too often. I suspect I'll start the habit of skipping gears for certain times in daily driving. I haven't driven it faster than 60 so far.. no highway cruising yet.. so I can't say first had that it winds up too high for highway driving.. But I can say that it has more than enough usable torque to drive in the 50mph range in 6th gear.. What that means to me is that 6th gear is wasted.. Make it an old fashioned "overdrive".. A gear that has a low enough ratio that you can cruise on the highway at 65 to 75 mph in the lowest usable revs. I have no problem down shifting to pass or if I'm heading up a steep grade. I see no reason why the motor couldn't sustain 2400 rpms at 70mph.. why does it need to be over 3000? I know I didn't buy a Prius.. so I'm not expecting 45 mpg.. but still.. I'll never use 6th gear on the racetrack, so I see no need to keep the consistently short gear ratios all the way through to 6th.. make it more efficient! From what I've read recently, it sounds like it may be possible to direct swap a 3.7 rear end in place of the current 4.1. That might be an excellent cure! Not only will it make the car more fuel efficient for now, but as we increase engine power, the short gearing issue will only compound my frustration.. having more power will lesson the need to make the car seam fast through gearing.. longer gears will then make it more usable. I think this may be a very good fix. http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7190



The ride is nice for a sports car.. It doesn't seem to make the same trade-off as many sports cars.. You normally need an ultra-firm suspension to make a car handle like this.. The BRZ somehow doesn't. It's no Lexus or Cadillac to be sure. You feel the bumps.. It's not going to be a relaxing cruiser that gobbles up the miles in serenity and peace and quiet. But that's not what I bought the car for.. It's comfortable enough that I don't dread driving on rough city streets. I bought the car for fun.. I can daily drive this car.


The size of this car is surprising to me. I've seen at car shows a few times and I've seen the comparisons to other vehicles (ie.. miata, gen coupe, etc..). From the outside, it seems smaller in person than what I was expecting.. but it doesn't strangely small either. It's a nice tight little package. From the inside, it's surprisingly spacious in the front seats. I was shocked at how much lateral space there is in the cabin. Unlike a miata.. I have a ton of space between myself and the door. Plenty of head room.. no worry there. They really perfected the seating position within the ****pit. It's perfect. You wear the car like a glove, but don't feel like you need a shoehorn to fit inside. The front seats are really well bolstered. I'm a big guy (nearly 275lbs), but I fit in the seats just fine. If I were much shorter than 6', I would probably find them uncomfortable, but I'm tall enough that they seats widen out around my shoulders and really do fit be very well. I think the only complaint I might have with the seats is that my left leg feels a little tight with the thigh bolsters on the seat bottom. It's not bad though. The back seat on the other hand... smaller than I expected and I have seen a lot of pictures, so I thought I was prepared for it. Still, my 3 year old and 6 year old boys will fit in there and I don't think they will complain. The trunk is wide and long, and the seats fold down nicely. However, it's still a very small trunk.. mostly due to height.. it's just not a tall trunk at all.



I'm pleased with the quality of the interior. I opted for the premium because I didn't feel that alcantera, heated seats, spoiler, and auto-climate control and keyless start were worth the upgrades for my taste. I think the cloth seats are fantastic.. they do not feel cheap at all. I like the manual climate controls.. I hate how auto-controls seem to always want to have the a/c compressor on. Manual is best for me personally. The Nav system seems more responsive than the demo video I saw in another thread. It's not as quick as my touchscreen phone of course.. but I didn't find it to be frustratingly slow to respond. I was relieved of that. I haven't messed around with the blu-tooth sync yet or anything really regarding the audio setting, etc.. So I'll report back on that later.



So what do I think of the overall package.. It's fanstic!!! For $25k, I can't imagine a much better product.. Sure, I'd like more torque and taller gears, but those are my only real complaints thus far. It's a great package.. a perfect platform. I've said this before, but I'll say it once more here.. I bought the car for the platform. I think it's the best thing out there under $30k. I think with another $10k in performance mods it will be the best thing out there for under $40k.. and perhaps even under $50k. If you buy a $50k car with a bad platform, you'll never really get anywhere with it. If you buy a $30k car with a fantastic platform, you can turn it into something really special. I look forward to that journey.



I'll edit this thread with pics and more details in the future.

[Fussy08X]

great review really enjoyed reading that thanks. Your complaint abt the short ratios is interesting. I personally welcome the short ratios but will see how annoyed i get with shifting once i get my own. Keeping this car under 4 RPM for break in has got to suck.

[WRXGuy1]

Great review, and I agree with pretty much everything you said. I did notice that while going 40 in 5th gear that the RPM's were higher than average, so to keep a decent highway mileage I'll probably have to stay around 65.

Believe it or not, but the biggest complain for me is the location of the 12V outlets. I have a radar detector with a spiraled cord, and it really ruins the look of the inside if I run it to the center console. Now if I run it to the outlet inside the glove box, it works well but because it's a spiral it's hard to shut. When you factor in that the glove box is the only closed compartment to put stuff I'm going to be using it quite a bit.

Everything else about the car is great!

[eikond]

I didn't even know there was an outlet in the glove box.. Thanks!


One other thing I forgot to mention is the seat belt.. In a comfortable seating position, it cuts into my neck. It's a little better with the strap snapped in, but I'm paranoid about the strap ripping the seat.

I'll probably get one of those seat belt covers/pads that will make it more comfortable on my neck.

[eikond]

I had a blast today. I've got over 300 miles on it already. I have to admit.. it's fun getting all the attention!

The torque drop between 3k and 4k rpms is getting a little annoying to me. I haven't gone over 4k yet though, so I'll reserve final judgement on the engine for a while longer.

Still, the engine winds up being far from your mind when you are throwing it through corners with a big smile on your face.

[touge-n00b]

Great review, thanks!


And I'm glad I'm not the only one who has a problem with the seat-belt position. Seems to be a common trait in affordable coupes (I have the same problem when driving a Genesis or S2000).

[russv]

Great photos and write up.

[Achpoques]

Originally Posted by touge-n00b

Great review, thanks!


And I'm glad I'm not the only one who has a problem with the seat-belt position. Seems to be a common trait in affordable coupes (I have the same problem when driving a Genesis or S2000).

Same here man. I took a small road trip yesterday and on top of the sunburn, I have red marks from the rubbing on the seat belt. Whatever though lol

[BP1913]

Great review, thanks!

[eikond]

I finally got from my work week out of town.. what a joy to drive the BRZ again.

First off.. I filled the tank for the first time. 358 miles and it took 11.2 gallons. 31.9 mpgs.. WOW!!! I even clicked the pump back on thinking it mistakenly shut down early.. My in-car mpg was telling me 29.4. I would have been really happy with that as well.. but wow.. almost 32. We'll have to see if that keeps up.
I would say it was 75% highway.. for those interested.

I played with the audio system a little bit last night. I was very pleased with some things and pretty unhappy with others. First off.. the blutooth connection to the phone is great. I thought the call quality was decent. The audio streaming was better than I expected. It's not perfect, but then.. it's a car.. you have road noise, wind noise, etc.. so I'm not going to be a snobby audiophile and complain about a little bit of quality loss.

I wasn't impressed with the speakers though.. Again.. I'm not a big car audio snob.. but I can tell the difference between good speakers and bad ones.. These are bad ones.. when you turn up the volume they hurt your ears.. they get pitchy and tinny on the high treble and sloppy with the base.. no good.. I'll probably swap them out sometime in the future. I've always been a fan of Infinity car audio.. Maybe a set of Kappa's would do the trick along with a basslink in the trunk.. I think that would be just right.

Now my complaint.. The NAV system completely blows!!! You can't program a destination while driving. You can't get the recognition to come anywhere near understanding your commands.. It's just horrible. I'll stick to my android phone and google maps for my directions.


If I get some shade this evening I'll probably start the detailing process. I got my Iron-X in the mail from AutoGeeks. I need a good sealant/gloss.. I'll head over to Summit Racing for that this afternoon.. Then I'll do a nice wash/detail/polish/wax, etc..

[eikond]

I ordered personalized license plates for the first time in my life.

Surprisingly, nobody in MI has these 3 letters:

BRZ


I think I'm going to debadge the Subaru letters and the BRZ letters and just have the stars oval badge and my BRZ license plate.

[Ryephile]

Congrats on getting your BRZ! Great review; I totally agree with everything you said. The cars eagerness to turn-in and rotate is very apparent and certainly makes attacking curves something to look forward to. I think you'll get used to the gear ratios. I can relate, as I prefer longer ratios for the first couple gears.

You'll likely end up skipping gears...which is what I do in pretty much every car I've ever owned. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, perfect for getting away from the light and then cruising. 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, more relaxed accel then cruising. You get the picture.

Hope to see you & your BRZ in person at an upcoming event soon.
Cheers,
Ryan

[Enjuku Racing]

any plans for mods?

[Dave-ROR]

Looks great man! I'm still trying to see when I can take off a few more days for BRM...